March 25 (Bloomberg) -- European power prices for 2015
dropped to a record as fuel costs fell, cutting production
expenses at plants burning coal and gas amid mild weather.

Europe’s benchmark contract dropped as much as 0.7 percent
and Czech power for 2015 dropped to its lowest level since the
contract’s start in June 2012, broker data compiled by Bloomberg
show. German gas for next year fell 0.2 percent to 24.65 a
megawatt-hour, declining for a sixth day to the lowest since
2011, according to broker data from NetConnect Germany. European
coal for delivery in 2015 retreated 0.5 percent to $80.90 a ton,
extending this year’s decline to 6.6 percent, broker data
showed.

Wholesale power prices in Europe’s biggest economy have
plunged 34 percent since 2010 amid record output from
renewables, while electricity demand last year slumped to the
weakest since 2009, according to energy researcher AG
Energiebilanzen e.V. Trading in German power last month fell 36
percent from a year earlier to 454 terawatt-hours, according to
Trayport’s Euro Commodities Market Dynamics Analysis report.

“The market has been really illiquid in the last days,
while from the beginning of the year all the important energy
commodities are heading downwards and there was no winter,”
Juraj Broncek, the head of central and eastern Europe energy at
42 Financial Services, a Prague-based electricity and gas
broker, said by e-mail. Prices may drop even lower this week, he
said.

French Electricity

German power for delivery in 2015 fell to 34.95 euros
($48.19) a megawatt-hour, the lowest since the contract’s start
in November 2010, as of 4:47 p.m. in Berlin, according to broker
data compiled by Bloomberg.

Czech power for 2015 dropped as much as 0.3 percent to
34.05 euros a megawatt-hour, broker data show. French
electricity for next year declined to 42.40 euros a megawatt-hour, the lowest in a month.

Solar output in Germany is set to peak at 22,079 megawatts
tomorrow, up from 20,658 megawatts today, while wind production
is forecast to rise to 6,268 megawatts tomorrow from today’s
high of 4,296 megawatts, according to Bloomberg’s solar and wind
model.

Average aggregated temperatures in northwest Europe are
forecast to be 10.5 degrees Celsius next week, compared with a
seasonal norm of 9.1 degrees, according to WSI data using the
GFS model. Germany is poised to be 1 degree warmer than normal,
the data show.